Russian PM Medvedev insists on deepening integration, Minsk wants to solve economic issues first
Russia is ready to further deepen integration with Belarus. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes that the Kremlin is ready to create a common emission center, a common court and other bodies.
“I want to emphasize: Russia is ready to continue to move along the path of building the Union State, including the creation of a single emission center, a single customs service, a court, and a chamber of accounts in the manner prescribed by the agreement on the creation of the Union State of December 8, 1999,” Dmitry Medvedev said.
But Minsk believes that the time for such integration has not come. Moreover, according to the Prime Minister of Belarus Syarhei Rumas, the parties are very slowly moving towards solving problems that have a negative effect on integration, Interfax reports.
“Mutual trade was and is the main indicator of bilateral relations. Unfortunately, in 2018, the imbalance in the goods trade between Belarus and Russia is increasing, based on the statistics from 10 months of 2018, the negative balance of mutual trade increased by 3.3 billion US dollars, ”said Rumas.
He stressed that the main reason for this is that the economic issues important for the Belarusian side are being resolved very slowly.
